Today is the 2nd day of Jan and can’t believe Xmas and NYE just zoomed past like that in 2 weeks. Last 2 weeks were bad. Had very sore throat and fever twice. The throat was so swollen that i have difficulty swallowing down my saliva when i lay down flat on my bed to sleep and i get choked by my own saliva. So i have to sleep side ways. Dec was a busy month. Alot of claims to submit and appointments with clients. So now i carry a hot tumbler with ginger tea out for appointments to sooth my throat and drink more water.

Dec is the month where many clients were on leave and have the time to go for medical checks. And this month , there are 2 clients who were diagnosed with early stage cancer after they went for medical checks. They are both in early 30s. 1 has the same condition as Korean actor Kim Woo Bin (nasopharynx cancer) and the other is a lady who was diagnosed with ovarian carcinoma. They just had their surgery and treatment. One just did his insurance whereas the other does not have which she asked me to share the story.

A friend referred her to me because she was looking for someone to do up her retirement and insurance portfolio. And since many of my clients are females (early 20s to late 50s) and i do plannings for families, she decided to engage my service and do up her portfolio with me since she feels more comfortable speaking to me.  Concidentally , she read my blog before when she googled for Hera. Wah so qiao…SG really damn small.

We met and as usual ,  the usual text follow up , discussion but because of her work schedules and biz trips , she has no time to look through the proposals and discussions done. So a few of meetings got postponed to later dates. Then she changed job and this company gives good employee benefits such as full medical check ups which can be reimbursed. So she decided to go and that was when she found out she has ovarian carcinoma.

There are no symptoms and the only thing she find unusual was that she felt very tired recently and her period was painful. After she met the doctor and got her results , she called me to inform me and asked for meet up asap. So on that day, she postponed her other commitments and we met. She told me she felt very guilty for postponing our meetings due to her schedules . She just bought a private property and she has to take some time off from work to go for her treatment, therapy and follow up with her doctor. Also her parents are retired and they are old. They depend on her. So she was worried because she has no coverage and was worried if treatments and taking a break from work will dry up her savings or become a financial burden to her parents if she did not recover. So now we are meeting to discuss the options.

She wanted to share her experience is because she regretted not getting her portfolio done earlier when she was younger and healthy. And she did not prioritized what needs to be done first. Somethings can be put aside and do later but some things is better to get it  done asap and earlier. She hopes that by sharing her story, she can help some others.

Better to have a sense of urgency than to have a sense of regret.

Just a month ago, oppa also asked if i have done up his portfolio in full because he just had a day surgery in Korea 3 months ago when we went back in October.  He was worried for the future and for me. He wants to make sure that if anything happens to him , the last thing he wants me to do is to be bogged down financially with any liabilities he have here (housing loans, medical bills etc if any). Suddenly out of the blue he asked me to go through what i have done up for him.

Sigh very saddening and shocking actually. Especially when you have built a good and close friendship with these people and to know they have illness that might be treatable or not is really shocking. Imagine you knew each other as strangers and then became friends…and then you have to do the claims for a friend. It is not about doing doing the claims but to know your friend was struck with an illness.

I hope this year everyone will be healthy..stay healthy and be healthy. Nothing beats more than a good health.

Chasing material goods or money is not everything. Something once you lose it , you will never get it back such as health and your relationship with your love ones.